Part of Why Weight Is a Challenge

Marx writes that under conditions of estranged labor, man “no longer feels himself to be freely active in any but his animal functions."

bday 2009

sometimes i post a list of stuff i want for my birthday on this blog. do you know what i want for my birthday this year? i want to spend time with the people i care about - my family and friends. let's go out to dinner, or see a concert, take a hike, or catch a movie. i have enough stuff. but i've had kind of a lonely year, and i'd really like for that to go away sometime soon. that's really all i could ask for.

celebrity morph = boredom

MyHeritage: Celebrity Morph - Pedigree - Ancestors

back in usa

just got back from turkey, which was awesome. got lots to say about it, including some tips i'd like to pass on to anyone else visiting there, but i've got to organize my thoughts first. wanted to drop a post though and mention how much i'm enjoying the marianne faithfull album i just got, "easy come, easy go." i know it's been out for about a year, but i just got my hands on it recently, and it's perfect chill out and think/write/do crafts music. good stuff. particularly like the tracks "children of stone" and "down from dover" (the latter of which i believe is a dolly parton(!) cover.)

anyways, that's all for now!

Another Reason To Hate Sports Bras

We all know that sports bras are notorious for giving women a "uniboob" - that's old news. I recently discovered another reason to hate sports bras. Normally I would only wear a sports bra at the gym, but yesterday I worked out at the end of the day (rather than the beginning) and went home directly after my workout (without changing clothes.) Much to my chagrin, the seatbelt spent the entire ride home trying to strangle me. I couldn't figure out why suddenly I was getting an unwelcome neck massage from the seatbelt. Had the height setting on the belt changed? Did I raise or lower my seat? Was I suddenly a few inches shorter? I kept yanking it down trying to get it to sit lower across my chest, rather than my neck. A few minutes later it would ride up again. I looked down in exasperation, and that's when I realized. Thanks to the infamous sports bra uniboob, the seatbelt which would normally be resting comfortably between my boobs, just kept sliding off. Not only did my boobs usually keep it from riding up, but they also kept me safer by restraining my whole torso and not just my head! So there it is, in a nutshell. Another reason to hate sports bras.

Pwned by French Music Duos

I have recently been working on some research for an art project I want to do centered on the evolution of music genre, and I realized something kinda crazy. When it comes to electronic music, the French totally OWN me. And not just any French, but French music duos. Like, SERIOUSLY own me - no joke. As I was researching some of my favorite techno on Wikipedia yesterday I kept being struck by the similar beginnings of the articles:

AIR:
Air (sometimes spelled with all capital letters as AIR) is a French (from region Île-de-France) music duo, consisting of Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel.

CASSIUS:
Cassius is a French house music duo consisting of producers Philippe Cerboneschi and Hubert Blanc-Francard, better known as Philippe Zdar and Boom Bass.

DAFT PUNK:
Daft Punk is an electronic music duo consisting of French musicians Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo (born February 8, 1974) and Thomas Bangalter (born January 3, 1975).

JUSTICE:
Justice is a French electronic music duo consisting of Gaspard Augé (born 21 May 1979 in Besançon) and Xavier de Rosnay (born 2 July 1982).

MODJO:
Modjo is a French house/pop musical duo made up of producer Romain Tranchart and vocalist Yann Destagnol (aka Yann Destal). They had major success with their hit single "Lady (Hear Me Tonight)".

And then, running a close second in total tally, were some UK duos:

BASEMENT JAXX:
Basement Jaxx are a UK house music duo. The duo consists of Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe. Basement Jaxx rose to popularity in the late 1990s.

SASHA & DIGWEED:
Sasha & John Digweed are a pair of DJs from the United Kingdom. John Digweed had been DJ-ing for ten years before getting a gig at Renaissance where he met Sasha, who had been working the past few years in various acid house clubs and raves.

ORBITAL:
Orbital are an English electronic duo from Sevenoaks consisting of brothers Phil Hartnoll and Paul Hartnoll whose career lasted from 1989 until 2004 and have now reformed in 2009.

UNDERWORLD:
Underworld is an English electronic music group, and principal name under which duo Karl Hyde and Rick Smith have recorded together since 1980.

My favorite solo DJs aren't nearly as homogenous - Morillo's from Brazil, Ferry Corsten's from the Netherlands, Sharam is Iranian-American, and so on and so forth. Just thought the above was a funny coinkydink. I give up France, I am your house music bitch.

Wow, it's been forever.

I can't believe how long it has been since I've updated this thing. And how infrequently before then. I can remember when blogging was a multiple-times-per-day activity in college. Back when my computer was always on AND connected to the internet with no concern about the cable or electricity bills, and before I had a job that kept me out of the house for 12 hours a day.

Anyway, some things have come up lately that I have wanted to share with anyone who might still check this thing periodically so I figured I should update.

Number one: my ipod is totally sentient. And it totally gets mood swings. It usually takes me 8 (+/-2) songs to get to work. Sometimes the pod is all sweet and compliant and gives me a perfect mix exactly when I want it. And sometimes not. This week, it has complied pretty well. Here's a sampling of some of the drive-to-work mixes it has delivered:

Monday
1.) I Touch Myself - Divinyls
2.) Just - Radiohead
3.) Whipping Post - Allman Bros
4.) End of the World as We Know It - R.E.M.
5.) Here Goes Something - Nada Surf
6.) You Look So Fine - Garbage
7.) Amber - 311
8.) This is Love - PJ Harvey

Tuesday
1.) Toxic - Britney
2.) Under Your Spell - BTVS Soundtrack
3.) If I Ever Lose My Faith in You - Sting
4.) Paranoid Android - Radiohead
5.) Mixed Bizness - Beck
6.) Great Indoors - John Mayer
7.) Politik - Coldplay
8.) 1979 - Smashing Pumpkins

Wednesday
1.) F**k the Pain Away - Peaches
2.) Mississippi - Sheryl Crow
3.) Me & U - Cassie
4.) New Genious (Brother) - Gorillaz
5.) You Turn the Screws - Cake
6.) Garden - Pearl Jam
7.) Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne
8.) Life Your Life - TI

Thursday
1.) See You - Foo Fighters
2.) More and More - Offer Nissim
3.) Rock the House - Gorillaz
4.) 6 Underground - Sneaker Pimps (Paul Oakenfold remix)
5.) Electioneering - Radiohead
6.) In the Aeroplane Over the Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel
7.) Break on Through - The Doors

As you can see, when my Ipod is being compliant it is also being conciliatory - towards my extremely eclectic and random music tastes. Judging by these mixes.

Another weird thing about the Ipod - sometimes I feel like it's trying to show me something. Case in point, the other day after Electioneering had already come on once, it tried to play it again later. About 10 seconds in when I realized, "Hey, I've already heard this today," I decided to hit skip. And the next song started - and sounded exactly the same. I thought, "Wtf, Ipod are you sick?" and then noticed it wasn't Radiohead that was playing, but rather, a Lily Allen song. Of course now I can no longer remember which one - but it was a revelation inspired by the "shuffle songs" feature on my personified Ipod.

So that was one thing.

Next. Electric Mountain Rotten Apple Gang. This music = sweet. Accordion girl's socks = FTW.



That is that.

This art I was directed to by Boing Boing has me convinced that I'm not actually creative at all, just a good duplicator, because I could NEVER think of this. And it is awesome. In case you are wondering - those are CRAYONS. That picture is of a picture created with crayons. Check out the artist's website here. His name is Christian Faur.





Thus far I have resisted the urge to buy nintendo virtual console (VC) points and go crazy downloading games I played on my cousin's SNES. However, the recent arrival of Commodore 64 games on the VC has me singing a different tune. The first (and only) game playing mechanism my parents ever supplied/allowed was the computer. And the three or four 5 inch floppy disks we had with games on them were my first exposure to gameplay. "Dr. J vs Larry Bird," "Summer Olympic Games," and "Pitfall" all hold a great sense of game-related nostalgia for me. So I'm highly tempted to take the plunge and start downloading. Although like many things in life it is a balance between what we want and what we can afford. And if I am ever going to get the Nikon D80 I've been dreaming of for so long, the VC may have to wait. Even with commodore 64 games. But for anyone else out there who experienced these simple but fun games as a child, I encourage you to go check em out on the virtual console.

This story, about an airline in England that accepts a DIY photo id to board a plane gave me no small amount of fear and disbelief when I read it.

If you have a chance, check out this video countering the Ken Starr lawsuit against gay married couples in California.

Whew! That was a lot to get out. But I think that's it for now. I'll try to stop by a little more frequently, but who knows!!